Music for March 2019

“Love Fuzz” - Ty Segall, Deforming Lobes

Arrives March 29, 2019
Drag City

Ty Segall and The Freedom Band have announced a new album of live music called Deforming Lobes. The first single from the forthcoming record is called “Love Fuzz” and the sound of it is exactly what you might expect. The fuzzed-out guitars scratch away at the same contagious riff for the entirety of seven and a half minute freakout session with the drums and bass devotedly keeping pace. “Love Fuzz,” originally appearing on Segall’s 2012 Twins, is a much faster track this time around, bringing the urgency and showmanship of the live show right to you.

“South” - Damien Jurado, In the Shape of a Storm

Arrives April 12, 2019
Mama Bird Recording Co.

A lone voice accompanied by an acoustic guitar. Damien Jurado keeps it simple and sparse on the lead single from his upcoming 10 track album In the Shape of a Storm. The songs from the new collection were all recorded in one afternoon and so the result has an intimacy to it akin to a small house show where musicians pass a guitar around in a circle. “South,” like most songs that I write, is a collage of sorts, or collection of snapshots, that center around two characters. One could even presume me, or me as an alternate self. Dark, isolated, and slightly menacing in tone for a waltz number,” says Jurado of the new single.

“Anything At All” - HOMESHAKE, Helium

Released February 15, 2019
Royal Mountain Records

Montreal’s Peter Sagar, also known as HOMESHAKE, keeps it lo-fi on his fourth and latest album, Helium. On the track “Anything At All,” the drum machine beat sits heavy in the mix and sounds like a bossa nova preset on an old Casio keyboard - and that’s a good thing. A clean and lightly played electric guitar swirls around the beat before a synth pad and stumbling bass drop in. The R&B leanings of Sagar’s vocals is dry and seemingly presented without effects. It all adds up to an uncontrived jam that’s as simple as it is refreshing.

“Voice Simul” - Julia Holter, Aviary

Released October 26, 2018
Domino Records

“I found myself in an aviary full of shrieking birds.” The quote comes from a 2009 short story by the writer Etel Adnan and it inspired the epic 15-song record Aviary by the Los Angeles composer Julia Holter. Of the album’s theme, Holter says “Amidst all the internal and external babble we experience daily, it's hard to find one's foundation. I think this album is reflecting that feeling of cacophony and how one responds to it as a person - how one behaves, how one looks for love, for solace.” On “Voice Simul,” Holter walks the listener through a dream-like state of steady bass, crying horns, incidental harp, and vocals that rise and fall in tremendous fashion.

“Everyday” - Weyes Blood, Titanic Rising

Arrives April 5, 2019
Sub Pop Records

Natalie Mering, aka Weyes Blood, describes her latest album, Titanic Rising, as the Kinks meets WWII or Bob Seger meets Enya. These influences come through in surprising ways and can be heard clearly on the new single “Everyday.” The piano driven tune has a Kinksian hand clap bounce to it that would make Ray Davies proud, but to classify Weyes Blood merely as a collection of influences would be a disservice to Mering’s undeniable talent as a pop songstress in her own right. Try listening to “Everyday” three times in a row without having its melodies float around your head for hours after.

“Token” - Panda Bear, Buoys

Released February 8, 2019
Domino Records

For the first time since 2015’s Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper, Lisbon-based songwriter Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) is releasing a full-length album of new material. Buoys finds Lennox reconnecting with co-producer and co-mixer Rusty Santos (the two last collaborated on the critically acclaimed 2007 record Person Pitch). This time around the pair incorporate offerings from Chilean DJ Lizz and Portuguese musician Dino D’Santiago. Panda Bear frames the new album as a fresh start, saying “The last three records felt like a chapter to me, and this feels like the beginning of something new.”

“4(E+D)4(ER=EPR)” - William Basinski, On Time Out of Time

Arrives March 8, 2019
Temporary Residence Ltd.

Modern avant-garde composer William Basinski has announced his latest work On Time Out of Time with the release of “4(E+D)4(ER=EPR).” The works from the new album were originally commissioned for the 2017 installations "ER=EPR" and "Orbihedron" by artists Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand for the exhibition Limits of Knowing at Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin by curator Isabel de Sena. On Time Out of Time will be especially exciting for fans of both astrophysics and ambient music, as the new work incorporates source recordings from the interferometers of LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) capturing the sounds of the merging of two distant massive black holes, 1.3 billion years ago.

“Cyboogie” - King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Cyboogie 7”

Released February 1, 2018
Flightless Records

Melbourne-based psychedelic band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have put out their first new material since 2017. That year, the band released an astonishing 5 full-length albums. Since then, the group has been touring the world including a headlining gig at the Desert Daze festival. On their latest effort, “Cyboogie,” the band explores the sounds of disco with heavy use of vocoder and clavichord a la Stevie Wonder. An accompanying video for the single features the guys performing the track in matching red jumpsuits and 70’s style motorcycle helmets.

“Green Eyes” - Chris Cohen, Chris Cohen

Arrives March 29, 2019
Captured Tracks

With the single “Green Eyes,” LA-based songwriter Chris Cohen explores the deeply personal subject of the separation of his parents. “My parents got divorced while I was making this record, they were married for 53 years and my father spent most of his life in the closet, hiding both his sexual identity and various drug addictions. For me it was like being relieved of a great burden, like my life could finally begin”, Cohen says. The track is packed into a tightly wrapped pop package, but it’s apparent simplicity is deceiving. Cohen’s self-titled album will be his third full-length album and the first since 2016’s remarkable As If Apart.

“Saturdays Again” - Avey Tare, Cows on Hourglass Pond

Arrives March 22, 2019
Domino Records

Experimental musician Dave Portner (aka Avey Tare) is set to release a new record with the amusing title Cows on Hourglass Pond. The innovative songwriter announced the news with a single called “Saturdays (Again).” Fans of the Avey Tare’s more mellow work will likely enjoy the single with its shuffling beat, acoustic guitar driven structure, and moody and resonating swells. Portner recorded the songs in early 2018 at Laughing Gas on a Tascam 48 half-inch reel-to-reel recording machine. This marks the first new material from Avey Tare since 2017’s Eucalyptus. Catch him on tour in the United States from late March through to the end of April.

This sampler was compiled and written by Ben Sauder, who makes music as No Magic. His new album, In Cocoon, is out now on French Exit Records.